In 2023, California adopted two laws (SB 253 and SB 261) that will require reporting of greenhouse gas and climate-related financial risks by companies doing business in California beginning in 2026. The first compliance deadline in SB 261, which applies to companies with annual revenue above $500 million, is January 1, 2026. The first reporting deadline under SB 253, which applies to companies with annual revenue above $1 billion, is June 30, 2026.

But the California Air Resources Board has not yet issued draft regulations to implement the laws and has made clear that it will not do so until after the January 1 deadline for SB 261 reporting. Although CARB has released a list of companies it believes are subject to the two laws’ reporting requirements, it made clear in doing so that the onus remains on each company to determine if it in fact meets the applicability thresholds.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups brought constitutional challenges to the two laws in federal court in Los Angeles and sought a preliminary injunction to pause the implementation of the laws. After the district court denied their request, the challengers asked the Ninth Circuit to pause the law before the January 1 deadline for SB 261 reporting.

On October 23, the Ninth Circuit’s motion panel deferred the challengers’ motion for intervention to the merits panel—the three-judge panel that will ultimately be selected at random from the court’s judges to determine the laws’ constitutionality. On October 27, the challengers asked the court to appoint a merits panel immediately so that the panel could consider the challengers’ motion before the January 1 deadline. The challengers requested a ruling by October 31, writing in their motion that, if the Ninth Circuit declined to stay the laws, they planned to file a petition for injunction with the Supreme Court on November 10.

The Ninth Circuit denied that request on October 29. Instead, the court set argument on the challenge to the disclosure laws for January 2026—too late to forestall the January 1, 2026, deadline for the first round of SB 261 reporting. As a result, the January 1 compliance deadline will remain in place unless the Supreme Court intervenes after the challengers’ expected November 10 petition to enjoin the California laws.

In recent years, the Supreme Court has used its emergency docket to grant interim relief in cases where, like here, lower courts had refused to do so while proceedings in those courts continued. In February 2016, the Court granted a preliminary stay of the Clean Power Plan, an EPA rule developed by the Obama administration to limit carbon emissions from power plants, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had refused to stay the rule while it considered the case.¹ More recently, in April 2025, the Supreme Court temporarily enjoined the Trump administration from deporting certain Venezuelan immigrants, even though no lower court had ruled on the matter.² Finally, in May 2025, the Court ordered the Maine House Clerk to count the votes of Maine State Rep. Laurel Libby despite her then suspension and censure, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit declined to issue such an injunction while it considered Libby’s appeal.³

In all three cases, the Supreme Court stepped in to grant relief even though lower courts had refused to do so on a preliminary basis and proceedings were ongoing in those courts—a departure from the Court’s primary role of hearing appeals from final judgments below. This trend raises the prospect that the Court could intervene here to pause the first compliance deadline in SB 261, even though no lower court has agreed to do so and proceedings are ongoing in the Ninth Circuit.

Assuming the challengers file their petition on November 10, the Supreme Court could rule in late November or December. As a result, uncertainty about whether companies subject to the reporting obligation in SB 261 will face a January 1, 2026, deadline is likely to continue for several more weeks.

Footnotes:

1. SCOTUSblog, “Carbon pollution controls put on hold” (Feb. 9, 2016), https://www.scotusblog.com/2016/02/carbon-pollution-controls-put-on-hold/. 
2. SCOTUSblog, “Justices temporarily bar government from removing Venezuelan men under Alien Enemies Act” (April 19, 2025), https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/04/justices-temporarily-bar-government-from-removing-venezuelan-men-under-alien-enemies-act/.
3. SCOTUSblog, “Supreme Court requires clerk to count votes by lawmaker censured for social media post about transgender athlete” (May 20, 2025), https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/05/supreme-court-requires-clerk-to-count-votes-by-lawmaker-censured-for-social-media-post-about-transgender-athlete/.